You’ve nurtured your leads; you’ve earned their trust and made them fans of your brand.
That’s all well and good but Alec Baldwin will tell you that “almost” just doesn’t cut it when it comes to making the sale.
Can you believe that 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales?
That’s why you need content for closers. This is content that your marketing and sales teams can use to make the sale.
What types of content work best for this?
Demos/Trials
This one is obvious. If you can offer a free trial of your offering, it is a great sell to those looking at your offering.
If you’re getting indicators that a lead is getting close to the bottom of the funnel, you’ll see that they are engaging with later-stage, more advanced content.
Demos and trials are perfect for those who are considering your brand and offering but aren’t sure they can commit the (often large) chunk of their budget without trying your offering.
Offer them a month, a couple weeks, or a week-long trial. Sometimes, that’s the only way someone will become a paying customer.
Case Studies
This time-old tactic is well-used because it works. Every company in B2B today should have case studies for late-in-the-funnel leads.
Here, be specific. A good case study contains:
- A company with a problem – This is how any good case study should start. Find a customer who solved a problem with your offering, then ask them to chime in about how your brand helped them.
- Data – Don’t skimp on the data. It may take some effort but figure out some numbers to show how effective your offering is. You need real, tangible results, even if your product is digital.
- Human faces – You’re selling to humans, not machines. Add some nice pictures to your case study so it feels warmer than the bland, traditional white paper. Ideally, you would want actual pictures of happy customers, but stock photos will do in a pinch.
- External validation – Get a quote or two from your happy customers endorsing your product. This external validation is more valuable to leads at the bottom of the funnel than anything your in-house team can write.
Case studies are incredibly important in B2B. Nobody wants to spend hundreds, if not thousands, on an unproven solution. And 34% of B2B buyers said more team members are being involved in making purchases.
Case studies perfect for convincing an entire team and their manager to buy your solution.
Comparisons With Competitors
You might be afraid to address your competition, but you shouldn’t be. Content that compares your offering with that of the competition is powerful.
It shows that you aren’t afraid to bring up the competition, that’s how confident you are in your product.
And you can tailor the comparison to suit your brand by picking and choosing what features you talk about.
Figure out what makes your brand the best. Is it:
- The price?
- The ease-of-use?
- The customer service?
- The integrations?
- Or is it something else?
If you haven’t already figured out why people should choose your brand over others, now is the time. Your customers will compare you to your competition regardless. That’s why you need to take control of that part of the conversation, especially at the bottom of the funnel.
Data-Driven Infographics
Just because a lead is at the bottom of the funnel doesn’t mean they exclusively want dense content. You can take difficult-to-visualize data that relates to the purchase decision and put it into an infographic for easy consumption. Kissmetrics did this with a case study and the results are incredible.
Persona-Focused Content
The bottom of the funnel is not the place for mass email blasts. Here, you need to segment your content very well in order to be effective.
This is best achieved by using the buyer personas you’ve (hopefully) already created. Make content for every type of person that might be interested in your offering. Make sure it’s product-focused and job title specific.
You need to emphasize how your offering gives value at the bottom of the funnel. Segmenting personas is the most effective way to do this.
Remember, the sale is the true measure of how effective your marketing is. It doesn’t matter how many leads you have in the pipeline if you can’t close the deal.
Alec Baldwin knows that coffee is only for closers. Make sure you get your coffee by creating better sales-ready content.
What types of content convince you to buy? Should we add any to this list? Let us know in the comments section.
